


The Last Time

by DareTony



Category: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: Bombs, Character Death, Emotional Hurt, Explosions, F/M, Gun Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-28 18:16:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15054953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DareTony/pseuds/DareTony
Summary: Caliber reflects back on her life and her feelings for Buck as she slowly succumbs to a fatal gunshot wound.





	The Last Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aesos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aesos/gifts).



“You look -.”

“Beautiful, I know. You’ve only said it about a million times. I know you can be a bit more original than that Buck.”

It was said in jest with a soft jab of the elbow to Buck’s ribs as she smiles softly up at him. Buck laughed in response before he placed a lingering kiss to her forehead, a token for good luck before he watched her leave for the mission. If only she knew then what she knew now.

Now she can only feel regret for those last words she spoke to him. If only she could turn back time, to hear that rich voice give her praise in a way she really only wanted from him. Only if there was a way that she could take it all back. She would give anything to be able to tell Buck she loves him one last time. But it is too late. It seems you will never know when your words will be your last.

Caliber leans back against the concrete wall, hand clutching at the profusely bleeding wound along her side as she squeezes her eyes shut. It stains her hands red, the same ruby shade as her now sweat drenched locks. Each passing second she can feel herself growing weaker. The energy is draining from her limbs, making them grow heavy and stiff. It was never meant to end this way, or at least she wishes to believe that. Buck and Caliber were going to have a long happy life together. Together they would settle down after they both retire from the life of a soldier. It wouldn’t be until she was old and just starting to accept her grays that she would finally kick the bucket.

Who was she kidding? Of course it would end this way. Whether it be Caliber or Buck, a day would have come where one of them didn’t come home. It happens to the best of soldiers.

“You’ve got this. One last time,” Caliber whispers to herself, eyes closed as she tries to find that last bit of inner strength. Willing herself to drown out the pain, she takes a deep breath and pulls herself together.

There is still a mission to complete. In the end, that is what matters in these final few moments Caliber has left. It is obvious that she will succumb to her wounds whether she decides to sit there or whether she decides to actually take some action. Even her team can’t help her now, but she can help them. Why not give that final push? Why not give her last to help the rest of the squad complete the mission? While there isn’t any bullets left in her rifle, she is still armed with a single EMP round and the six inch stiletto blade Thatcher had gifted her upon her last birthday. Not much for a proper fight, but better than nothing.

As Caliber mentally preps to push off the wall, she can hear what she knows can only be a suicide bomber. Another deep, calming breath as she opens her eyes. She loads the EMP round into her weapon. Another breath settles her nerves and calms the shaking of her hands. The strap holding in her knife is flipped open, ready to be unsheathed.  
“One. Last. Time.”

Pushing off the wall, Caliber barrels out into the hallway to see the masked bomber making a slow but steady line for a recruit that seems to be frozen in terror at the opposite end. Lifting the rifle, she aims for the bomb strapped to their body. It will only disable the bomb for a few seconds. All she needs is that small window of time to do her job. She isn’t going out without one last good fight.

“Hey! This way! Come fight me you son of a bitch!” Caliber shouts, watching the bomber spin around to face her, just in time for the EMP round to hit their chest. It sparks and crackles, and Caliber knows it has done its job.

Before the bomber has even managed to comprehend the situation, Caliber has already pulled out her knife and lunged across the floor. They tumble together as Caliber attempts to bury the blade through the thick white fabric of meaty flesh of their shoulder. But with the growing weakness of Caliber’s limbs, she can’t keep a hold of the weapon and it slips from her hands as she stumbles. That doesn’t stop her. Kicking with her feet, Caliber continues to fight back with her fading strength. She doesn't even feel as more bullets tear through her flesh as the bomber manages to maneuver his gun between their bodies.

“Get out of here you fool!” Caliber shouts over the shoulder of the bomber, looking at the eyes of the recruit. This is for him. So that he can make an escape and at least one of them will make it out of here alive. “Run before it is too late. The bomb is only disabled for so long!”

Finally the recruit snaps out of his frozen state, eyes locking with Caliber’s for a fleeting moment before turning tail and running in a different direction. A weight lifts from her shoulders, and she stops putting up such a fight. It is all too much. Reaching for the knife still in the bomber’s shoulder, Caliber tries to force it deeper to cause as much damage as possible before it ends. In response she gets a pained grunt as she locks eyes with the attacker through the dirt lined plastic of their mask.

A few seconds pass.

It may be cliche, but Caliber’s life really does flash before her eyes as she watches a thumb lower onto the detonator. Every face. Every memory. They all come back around to haunt her as the world around her falls away. Caliber thinks to what could have been. She thinks of sitting on the house porch while watching Buck working in the yard if only things were different. It is lucky there is nobody else there to see them, because Caliber tries to pretend it isn’t tears in her eyes. Buck’s face is the last thing Caliber sees in her mind before the explosion rips both her and the bomber apart.

When the team lands back at the Hereford base, Buck is waiting ever so patiently at the entrance to welcome back his girl. Yet nobody will look at him as they pass him by to go inside. One of the recruits is in tears and has to be escorted into the building as they try to calm him down enough to turn in his report. Buck watches as people file out of the helicopter one by one, yet he still does not see Caliber. 

“No….” a pit forms in his gut as he rushes up to Thatcher as he steps down onto the grass. The Brit is the only one that dares to meet his gaze. “Where is she Mike? Where is Alexis?”

Thatcher doesn’t speak a single word, but the look in his eyes says it all. With a deep frown laced with pain, Thatcher overturns Buck’s hand and sets something in his palm. Forcing the younger man to close his fist around it, he sighs sadly and pats him on the shoulder.

“She was a good woman. It is a shame we had to lose her like this,” Thatcher regrets that he has to be the one to give such terrible news, especially as he watches the tears begin to form in the Canadian’s eyes. “But we’re all alive because of her. She sacrificed herself to save others. It was an honorable death.”

Nothing is said as Buck tightens his grip around the dog tags in his hand and throws his arms around the other man. Thatcher simply allows him to cry as he pats him on the back. Nobody dares to make judgement as they see the man in such a broken state, because it could be the same for them any day. Everyone fears the day that their loved one will be the one that doesn’t make it home.

Caliber’s dog tags were all the was left after the explosion, so the team buries an empty casket in her memory. Buck rests a bouquet of her favorite flowers on top of the stone with her name freshly carved into its once smooth surface. After everyone has left, he stays. Buck sits down beside her headstone. Caliber’s dog tags hang from his neck along with his own and he never takes them off. There are all that he has of her. 

“I love you,” Buck says one last time as his fingers trace the letters of her name. ”I miss you, and I’ll never forget you.” He stands to leave thinking of how the worst thing in life is to miss somebody that can never come back.


End file.
